Dr. Jane Vella and Rebecca Hutchins talk with Dan Haase, Associate Lecturer at Wheaton College, about the axiom “Hold the opposites” (aka “Fold the opposites”)…
Episode 10: Hold / Fold the Opposites
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Episode 12: Learning is in the Doing and Deciding
On this final episode of Simply True, Jane is joined by all her co-hosts – Rebecca, Val, and Peter – to reflect on the axiom, “Learning is in the doing and deciding.” Val and Peter share similar stories – they met Jane over two decades ago, early on in their...
BONUS Episode 211: Revolutionizing Learning at a Medical University in Chile
At the end of the violent dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in 1990, Chileans united for a newfound democracy. The short interview you are about to hear picks up at this historic time, when primary care doctors at Chile’s leading medical school called for a...
Episode 102: The Creation of Dialogue Education
Dr. Jane Vella, the founder of Global Learning Partners, shares how her journey as an international teacher brought to life the core principles of adult learning that we now call Dialogue Education. She reflects on how the approach has evolved through praxis and...
Learning at Last
Every time I have tea with a friend by my fire, I learn something important. Here are two examples: Susan Johnstone came to review her design for her Presentation of her research for her M.A. As we worked, I realized for the first time that immediate indicators of...
Quality Check List
We had an inspiring dialogue about the usefulness of a tool to assure quality Dialogue Education designs and teaching. How do we know we are doing the best Dialogue Education with our students? Is there a checklist we can use to assure that we have thought of...
Joy is the Measure
Paulo Freire continually asked, "What is to know?" I want to add another open question: How do you know you are right on, doing what folks truly need for their learning and yours? This week I realized: Joy is the measure. I feel and realize deep joy in learning...
Whence Depth?
My newest passion about adult learning is depth. Whence depth? How can we be sure we are inviting and challenging learners to go deep! I want learners to not only learn the surface facts and figures, but to imagine implications, to reconstruct a concept to fit a...
A Growing Stillness
Henri Nouwen was a man of faith who once wrote this about the winter solstice (Advent): "This time of year I feel a growing stillness in myself..." I felt a strong connection to that phrase: a growing stillness. As an extravert who has to speak...
A Few New Axioms
You are going to have to walk slowly to keep up with me! is my warning offered to those who dare to go for a walk with me these days. Another new axiom I am living by is Keep your eyes off the clock! Both of these speak to my predilection for “busy," for “productive,"...
Towards a New Consciousness
Walter Brueggemann is a scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures. He says: Moses was not engaged in a struggle to transform a regime (in Egypt ); rather his concern was with the consciousness that undergirded and made such a regime...
The Gift of Knowing – Da’at
I learned something this week: Da’at is the Hebrew word for knowing, knowledge that is powerful, participative, productive. Da’at is cognitive, affective, psychomotor knowing: ideas, feelings, actions interwoven and effective towards new...